


Say Amen

by enbyred



Series: Pray for the Wicked [10]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Angst, Family Angst, Gen, Hurt, Identity Reveal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-09
Updated: 2019-04-09
Packaged: 2020-01-07 14:01:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,254
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18412109
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/enbyred/pseuds/enbyred
Summary: Hawkmoth has finally brought down Ladybug and Chat Noir, but that doesn’t mean that there won’t be a continued struggle.





	Say Amen

**Author's Note:**

> Based off Panic! At the Disco’s [Say Amen (Saturday Night)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZI8tFthAZ5M)

“Please, Master.” Nooroo zipped after Gabriel, following him out of the lair and desperately trying to get his attention. “Please, don’t take their miraculous! The miraculous are supposed to be used to help people, to keep balance in the world, not to-”

Gabriel stopped and glared at Nooroo. “This is a good cause, and you have no say in the matter. You are under my control, and while I am your master, you will do as I say.”

“Please!” Nooroo begged. “You can’t use the ladybug and the cat to fulfill your wish, it’ll only bring more pain! If you bring your wife back to life, then someone else will die, Master, you know this! It could even be your son - or  _ you _ !”

“Do you think that matters?” The volume at which he scolded Nooroo even surprised Gabriel. Nooroo was cowering a few feet away, looking away from his holder. Gabriel lowered his voice. “We need Emilie. She is the only person I’ve known who is truly good. Adrien needs his mother, and I need someone to…. I need Emilie. The world is better with her in it. Even if I’m the one to die in order for her to come back, the world will be better for it.” He clasped his hands behind his back to show that he was composed once again, the pose that let Nooroo know that Gabriel was not going to budge on the matter. He never did.

Nooroo sighed and followed after Gabriel as they went through the trap door back up to his office. He stalked past Nathalie and out of the mansion, flinching in the bright light of day and ignoring whatever Nathalie was trying to say to him.

His akuma was at the base of the Eiffel Tower with a detained Ladybug and Chat Noir. After all this time, the heroes were completely unable to defend themselves. The miraculous was his for the taking. 

“They’re children,” Nooroo insisted from his hiding place inside Gabriel’s collar. “Is it really worth it to work so hard to destroy children your son’s age?”

“Yes,” Gabriel hissed back. “You act as though I haven’t calculated every move I make in this endeavor. I know exactly what I’m doing. The guardian did not have to choose children, that was his mistake. He should have known what to expect and chosen heroes more carefully if he wanted to make sure something like this wouldn’t happen. Now.” He stepped into the Grand Paris and ignored the workers’ scrambling to try to make sure his needs were accommodated. He wasn’t there to stay. He only needed the elevator to ascend to the roof. Once there, outside and alone, he said, “Dark wings rise.”

The transformation had hardly finished when he was running to jump to the next rooftop toward the Tower, leaping and bounding with his superpowered agility. Excitement was rising as he drew closer, as his akuma was in sight. How appropriate that the first akuma he had ever made was the one to come back and clutch the two heroes in his hands. Stoneheart stood tall, waiting for Hawkmoth and basking in his victory. Some stupid civilians who surely thought they were brave were hitting Stoneheart’s legs in attempt to get him to release the heroes. He stood strong, unfazed. As to be expected of such a flawless akuma.

Hawkmoth leaped down to the ground and approached Stoneheart, a grin on his face. Stoneheart allowed him to leap up onto his arm and kneel down to inspect the earrings on the unconscious Ladybug. The earrings beeped, two spots left on them. Carefully, he removed the earrings from her and her transformation instantly fell, revealing the young Marinette Dupain-Cheng. Pity. She was a bright girl with lots of potential. It was unfortunate that he had to bring her down like this.

Next was the ring. Hawkmoth jumped over to Stoneheart’s other arm as Stoneheart stood steadily to allow him access. The akuma was holding Chat Noir from the waist down, and the boy was lying face down, completely limp. Hawkmoth had to pull him up and take hold of his hand to extract the ring. There was only one pad left, blinking rapidly. It wasn’t like it mattered. He slipped the ring off Chat Noir’s finger and in a flash of light, the hero before him was suddenly very familiar. The wild hair was suddenly groomed, distasteful leather became a white button-up over a black tee. The Dupain-Cheng girl was one thing. This was entirely different.

Placing the jewelry in his inner pocket, Hawkmoth sighed and turned to Stoneheart. “Let the boy go. He’s coming with me.”

The rock-solid grip loosened on Adrien, and Hawkmoth gently lifted him up to pull him onto his shoulders and carry him back home. People on the ground were screaming to let him go, items from purses were being flung at him, including a hairbrush, a water bottle, and a half-eaten sandwich. He jumped away from the commotion, dodging people and the public eye. He would recall the akuma as soon as it was safe.

Only once down in the basement of the mansion, in front of Emilie’s coffin, did he set his son down to lay on the floor and recall the akuma. The city could deal with the problems of the damage and any injuries Marinette or the Bruel boy had sustained. After removing the miraculous from his inner pocket, joy bubbling up through his very being, he let his transformation fall and tossed the butterfly miraculous to the side, instantly silencing Nooroo as he barely had a moment to escape the miraculous before being called back in. Gabriel put on the ladybug earrings and black cat ring. Two kwamis appeared before him, one black and one red, both looking terrified. At least he wouldn’t have to look at their faces for long.

A groan from the floor caught Gabriel’s attention before he could call up the transformation. Adrien was stirring, propping himself up on one elbow while the other hand went to his head. He looked up at Gabriel, trying hard to focus on him before everything registered. He looked down at his own outfit, devoid of superhero garb, and frantically looked to his bare right hand before glancing back up to his father, Plagg hovering in front of him.

“Father,” Adrien rasped, struggling to his feet. “No, you - you can’t use the miraculous, it’s…” His eyes widened in realization. “You. You’re Hawkmoth. You’ve been - but  _ why _ ?” His eyes darted to the coffin and he nearly fell over again. “Mom. Father, I want her back as much as you do, but we can’t do this, it isn’t the way!” He stepped forward and reached for his father.

Gabriel opened his arms to his son and pulled him into a close hug.

“This is for the best, Adrien,” he told him quietly. “You and I have been struggling against each other for a long time, and I know that you think what I’m doing is wrong, but you’ll see just how right I am. This needs to be done. For all of our sakes.”

“Please, father.” Adrien began to cry, burying his face into his father’s chest. “Please, don’t do this. We have to let her go. We can’t stay in the past and use magic to get what we want!”

“You can’t,” Gabriel specified, his voice gentle as he stroked Adrien’s hair. “That’s why I had to do it for us. I will do whatever is necessary for our family. Whatever it takes.”

He put his hands firmly on Adrien’s shoulders and pushed him away to give himself space to call up the new transformation. The kwamis screamed as they were pulled into their respective miraculous, and the flash of light was so bright that Adrien had to shield his eyes. Even when the flash from the transformation was over, Adrien couldn’t look directly at whoever was standing in front of him. His hand in front of his face, he looked down at the floor, trying to figure any way to stop him. There was too much concentrated raw power for him to handle, especially without a miraculous.

A miraculous. Lying right there on the floor at his feet was the butterfly miraculous. It was his only shot. He snatched it up and fastened the brooch to his shirt, got the proper phrase from the kwami, and quickly called up the transformation. The miraculous allowed him at least to look at his father, who plucked a flower from the bouquets surrounding Emilie, and was moving his mouth and making sounds, but no real words were being uttered. 

A single white butterfly landed on Adrien’s shoulder. He tapped it gently on the head, filling it with energy that turned it a light shade of purple. Nudging it along, the butterfly flew toward Gabriel, and before he could react to its presence, it embedded itself in the flower, turning it purple. Gabriel’s mouth shut and his eyes widened, surprised at the sudden lack of control but unable to resist.

“Father,” Adrien choked through his tears. “You can’t use the miraculous. You’re grieving. You think bringing Mom back will make things better, but it’s only going to hurt more people. We can get through this. We can be okay again.”

Gabriel - or whoever he was at the moment - groaned and struggled against the akuma. Through gritted teeth, he said, “Adrien. Let me go. I’m doing this for us. I’m doing it for you!”

Shaking his head, Adrien swiped tears off his cheeks. “I won’t let you go. Even if I have to keep you akumatized forever. Even if we’re never free of this. I won’t let you use the miraculous to bring her back.”

“I - agh - let me…” Very suddenly, he relaxed. “My grief has consumed me for years. I only want the pain to stop. Magic is not the way.” The monotone quality to his voice told Adrien that the words were not Gabriel’s own. He would not have said them if he wasn’t akumatized.

“No!” Adrien grabbed fistfuls of his hair and yelled, “I don’t want to control his mind, I just want to change it about Mom! Ugh, I just…. At least I can do this.” He released his fists and said, “Give me the miraculous,” holding his hand out for them.

Gabriel removed the earrings, and the light immediately dissipated, leaving him transformed as the black cat only for a moment before he slipped the ring off his finger and handed them over to his son. Adrien held them tightly in his hand and recalled the akuma before dropping his butterfly transformation. In unison, he and his father both fell to their knees.

“Father,” Adrien gasped, crawling toward Gabriel with the miraculous still firmly in his hand. He knew that the posts of the earrings were probably going to hurt him if he kept holding them so tightly, but it didn’t matter as long as they weren’t being used the way Gabriel wanted them.

Gabriel glanced around to get his bearings again, feeling at his bare ears and ringless hand. Defeatedly, he sighed and leaned forward, his forehead nearly touching the floor.

“Why did you stop me?” Gabriel shouted, his voice breaking as he began to sob. “I could have fixed everything, and you took it from me! You took your own mother from yourself!”

“Don’t you think I want her back?” Adrien yelled back. “Don’t you think I’ve missed her since the day she disappeared? Or  _ died _ , since you’ve been keeping her body down here without telling me she’s dead? Do you know what that does to someone? Giving them false hope that they might come back? You can’t do that, and you can’t use magic that’s going to kill someone else just so you can get her back!” He took a shaky breath in and continued, “I’m giving your miraculous to the guardian. You won’t use the wish to bring Mom back. You won’t hurt anyone else anymore.” Struggling back to his feet, Adrien said, “Turn yourself in. You owe Paris that much.” He turned on his heel and walked away.

Gabriel sat on the floor, shaking, barely able to breathe through his tears as Adrien walked away with not one, but three miraculous. Without the miraculous, Gabriel had nothing. Nothing mattered if he didn’t have those powers, if he didn’t have Emilie. The pain stabbed his very heart and soul, causing him to scream in agony, dying of powerlessness in front of his wife’s coffin. Everything had been taken from him. He had nothing. Nothing.

“Mr. Agreste!”

The familiar voice echoed through the chamber with a pair of heels running toward him. He hardly managed to raise his head from the floor to look up before Nathalie was on her knees next to him, pulling him into her arms. He clung to her tightly, sobbing into her blazer.

“He took them,” he cried. “Adrien took the miraculous - the butterfly, the ladybug, the cat, they’re all gone.”

Nathalie strokes his head and hushed him. Quietly, she told him, “There’s one miraculous that he doesn’t have. And he’s about to lead us straight to the guardian. There’s hope for your wife yet.”

Her words took a moment to sink in as he tried to steady his breathing. He settled into her embrace and managed a smile at Nathalie’s loyalty. Maybe he did still have something. Maybe not quite everything was gone.


End file.
